NEEDHAM, Mass., March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- A free white paper is helping building owners avoid the complaints, business disruptions, and out-of-pocket costs that can result when they're forced by the construction schedule to occupy new or renovated facilities prior to "system final completion." "There's a disturbing trend in the construction industry towards final completion of building systems after occupancy," says Mike Della Barba, Director of Commissioning Services at EH&E, a leading environmental engineering and consulting firm, and author of the white paper "Getting the Building You Paid For" (http://www.eheinc.com/inchstonewhitepaper.htm). "Tight construction schedules often result in owners occupying newly constructed buildings that don't fully meet occupant needs in terms of heating, cooling, lighting, power or other systems. This often proves very costly to the owner in higher maintenance and energy costs and shortened equipment life," added Della Barba. The solution, however, is surprisingly simple, he said. By tracking key construction project deliverables -- termed Inchstones, as opposed to milestones -- building owners can often predict, and therefore prevent, possible schedule delays and the resulting performance shortfalls. Developed by EH&E after a detailed analysis of numerous construction projects, the Inchstones process is detailed in Della Barba's white paper. The 16-page white paper also details the expectations and reality of project completion; the evolving definition of "completion;" the three stages of completion; the roles of the general contractor, commissioning engineer, and building owner; the impact of incompletion on building occupancy and performance; and maximizing building value using the Inchstones process.
